HollywoodLife’s Gwen Stefani, Blake Shelton Stories Are Bullsplit

Truth rating: 10

By Michael Lewittes | 1:30 am, April 20, 2017

(Getty Images)

HollywoodLife first reported on Wednesday morning that Gwen Stefani and Blake Shelton had “split,” and claimed to know “why she dumped him” (below). The often unreliable site even illustrated its entirely inaccurate article with a picture of the couple with a tear mark between them. Without bothering to investigate the original publication’s reporting, the outlet cluelessly regurgitated a Life & Style cover story that wrongfully asserted Shelton and Stefani’s relationship was “over” because the two have “different lifestyles.” “It’s humiliating for Gwen to admit the relationship is done,” the repeatedly humiliated website quoted a so-called “source” as saying.

There was nothing resembling journalism involved in HollywoodLife’s post. There was no fact-checking. It was simply yet another example of the webloid copying and pasting another outlet’s misinformation. Had HollywoodLies, as it’s known, had an actual source, it would’ve known the tabloid was wrong and wouldn’t have published this fake news story in the first place.

Several hours later, the discredited website followed up its first fiasco of a story with a second piece that erroneously alleged Stefani and Shelton’s “struggle to have kids led to a breakup” (below). But, of course, the two have not broken up. Notwithstanding the truth and accuracy, HollywoodLies trudged along in its second article, maintaining the couple split “because they’ve been unable to start a family of their own together.”

Once more, the outlet relied on Life & Style, quoting its ill-informed or possibly fictitious “insider” as saying Shelton and Stefani’s love affair began with the two of them “getting excited about a baby.” But when they didn’t conceive, the relationship was over.

Again, with the second story, HollywoodLies didn’t have a source or look into the story’s merits (or lack thereof) on its own. It just rewrote the tabloid’s claims. What followed were commenters on the website pointing out that Gossip Cop had already exclusively corrected the claim that Stefani and Shelton had split. One reader wrote, “BS… This info is FAKE like 95% of the Hollywood lies stories.” Another commenter noted, “Gossip Cop said they have NOT split… HL is fake news.” And yet another person remarked, “This is bs! Not true… Now leave them alone.”

Then, several hours later, the more than occasionally disgraced site published a piece titled, “Gwen Stefani & Blake Shelton Split: Have ‘The Voice’ Lovers Called It Quits? — The Truth.” HollywoodLies then had the audacity to declare it uncovered “the truth” all on its own. In reality, the outlet saw the accurate account on Gossip Cop, completely backtracked on the claims it published in its two previous articles, and contended it magically found a so-called “insider,” who provided the webloid with a seemingly fabricated quote about how Shelton and Stefani are “happy” and “in love,” and are ignoring the “rumors… about their relationship being over.”

Remember, HollywoodLies twice happily spread those “rumors” earlier in the day and had no sources with whom to fact-check its stories. Are we now supposed to really believe that hours later HollywoodLife suddenly located a source to contradict its first two untrue articles? A skeptic would say the site realized its reports were wrong, having read its comments section and the original Gossip Cop debunking, and then made-up an unnamed and untraceable “insider” for its own bust. Gossip Cop, on the other hand, had an official statement from Stefani’s rep from the beginning, not long after the original article hit newsstands.